Dust Science with the DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer
<p>The DESTINY+<br />spacecraft (Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for<br />INterplanetary voYage with Phaethon fLyby and dUst Science) will be launched to the<br />active asteroid (3200) Phaethon by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA in 2024. The main<br />mission target will be Phaethon with a close flyby in 2028. Together with two cameras, the<br />DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer (DDA) on board will perform close observations of this rockcomet type object to solve essential questions related to the evolution of our inner Solar<br />System, especially the heating processes of small bodies. Phaethon is believed to be the<br />parent body of the Geminids meteor shower and is considered to be a comet-asteroid<br />transition object. Such objects likely play a major role to better understand the nature and<br />origin of mass accreted on to Earth. The DDA dust analyzer is an upgrade of the Cassini<br />Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) which very successfully investigated the dust environment of<br />the Saturnian system. The DDA instrument is an impact ionization time-of-flight mass<br />spectrometer with integrated trajectory sensor, which will analyse sub-micrometer and<br />micrometer sized dust particles. The instrument will measure the particle composition (mass<br />resolution m/&#916;m &#8776; 100-150), mass, electrical charge, impact velocity (about 10% accuracy),<br />and impact direction (about 10&#176; accuracy). In addition to dust analysis in the vicinity of<br />Phaethon during the close flyby at this small asteroid, DDA will continuously measure dust<br />in interplanetary space in the spatial region between 0.9 and 1.1 AU during the<br />approximately four years spanning cruise phase from Earth to Phaethon. We give a progress<br />report of the instrument development together with an update on the preparation of the<br />scientific measurements planned during the DESTINY+ mission.</p>